Wilco — 4 May 2025, Houston, TX (White Oak Music Hall [Lawn])

[bböp]

For a variety of reasons, I can’t say I had the highest hopes for an outdoor show in Houston in an amphitheater-type setting. First, there was the very real potential for it to be uncomfortably hot, humid, stormy or otherwise unconducive to enjoying music outside. Then there was the venue itself, which is essentially a lawn and concrete area outside a building with a makeshift festival stage set up featuring various steel barricades and folding chairs. And the audiences in settings such as this have occasionally produced some of the most annoying/bizarre/uncouth/indifferent behavior I’ve ever seen at a concert.

So it’s with some measure of relief I can report that, for the most part, this Wilco/Waxhatchee double bill held outside the White Oak Music Hall exceeded my (albeit low) expectations. Not only did we get to hear Wilco shake up its setlist a little bit from the previous week’s shows in Florida, but the weather thoroughly cooperated and the venue and crowd were even tolerable.

Even Jeff had to express his surprise and delight at the conditions in the first half of the show. “This is the best weather of all time,” he said two songs into the show. “I’ve been to Houston a fair number of times in my life. Did you guys change something?” And then a little later, Jeff added, “I’m marveling at this weather. It’s distracting.”

Jeff must have been a bit weather-stracted because I clearly heard him flub a couple of lyrics — he sang “Spiders are singing in the salty sea…” during the show-opening Spiders (Kidsmoke), for example, and “I could be your demon…” on War On War — though he didn’t seem to even realize it (and not many in the crowd did). It was kind of amusing, if only for a nerd like myself. You know, maybe it was just that kind of audience because as Jeff pointed out during a stretch of the setlist that went from One Wing to Hummingbird to Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull, “There’s a little theme in the set tonight. Ah, nobody cares.”

No, probably not. But then again, this was probably a typical outdoor Wilco audience nowadays — or just a typical Wilco audience, period. It is made up of fans, yes, but ones who seem most excited by songs like California Stars and Heavy Metal Drummer. Forgive me if that comes off as snobbish. I think there’s certainly room for multitudes under the Wilco umbrella, and I understand why some songs (and it’s true for any band of a certain stature) must be played night after night after night, but it does get kind of tiresome after a while.

Jeff and Co. have a part to play in that, too. There were certainly some in the Houston audience itching to hear some lesser-played tunes, like the folks I heard who yelled out for tracks such as Sunken Treasure and Panthers. But Jeff politely squelched those requests, saying, “Thank you for knowing the names of some of the songs and yelling them out, but we’re past the request part (of the evening). We put together a program for you of songs we feel comfortable playing and we’re gonna continue playing those for you.”

So with that said, I guess we were fortunate to get some of the variety we did — most notably the excellent show-opening two-fer of Spiders (Kidsmoke) right into Wishful Thinking. The acoustic arrangement of the former isn’t something I’ve heard in a while, so it was great to hear those opening chords and then the noise outro transitioning right into Wishful almost made the show for me right there. We also got another transition — from I Am Trying To Break Your Heart into One Wing — that hadn’t happened on this tour yet. And the Box Full Of Letters-Annihilation couplet also represented a mini-theme of sorts with one of the band’s earliest recorded songs being followed by one of its most recently recorded ones, causing Jeff to quip that “we’re gonna show you our artistic growth.”

By the time we got to the encore, Jeff was already struggling to fit all of the planned songs into what must have been a very firm 10 p.m. curfew. He clearly scrapped Falling Apart (Right Now) — the crew had already brought out the guitars for that song when Jeff had to send them back — and went right into the show-closing I Got You (At The End Of The Century), joking that “We’re running out of time. I just mean in general.” That, incidentally, was a funny little twist on his usual show banter about how “we’re coming to the end,” and when the audience naturally boos, adding, “I just mean, in general.”

Anyway, as I said, this setting could have made for an unmemorable show at best — or a subpar to mediocre one at worst. But when a friend asked me, “How was the show?” I had to respond that it was surprisingly decent. So although it wasn’t the best venue and I did witness some perplexing crowd behavior, on the whole, it was a pretty enjoyable night. Is that what happens when you set your expectations fairly low? Maybe I should try that more often!

Here was the complete setlist, as played (I didn't get a glimpse at a printed selist, but I'm sure that Falling Apart (Right Now) was on it in the encore; however, as mentioned, it wasn't played):

 

Spiders (Kidsmoke) (acoustic arrangement)>

Wishful Thinking

Evicted

Handshake Drugs

At Least That's What You Said

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

One Wing

Hummingbird

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Whole Love

War On War

Cruel Country

Quiet Amplifier

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Heavy Metal Drummer

A Shot In The Arm

------------------------------------

California Stars

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

[bböp]

Alas, I had to get to this show quite late so I missed most of Waxahatchee's opening set. There was a strange moment when she had to pause the set-closing Fire because apparently a gentleman in the crowd had collapsed or gone catatonic or something, so I hope he ultimately was OK. Katie And Co. were able to pick up the song literally right from where they had stopped and made it through the rest without further incident.

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta. So Houston did not have a problem for once.

Curious as to whether you are planning to do the South American tour. That would be a logistical epic. Good luck if yes.

Also, am I allowed to say how much I loath Walken? Maybe tied with Kingpin. Good to vent that spleen. Now all back to peace and love.

[bböp]

10 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Ta. So Houston did not have a problem for once.

Curious as to whether you are planning to do the South American tour. That would be a logistical epic. Good luck if yes.

Also, am I allowed to say how much I loath Walken? Maybe tied with Kingpin. Good to vent that spleen. Now all back to peace and love.

I am planning to attend the South American run, having sadly missed it in 2016 due to matters of baseball. It is kind of a proverbial bear, travel-wise. 

I also secretly loathe Walken, fwiw. Swamp rock, bah. 

[Albert Tatlock]

9 hours ago, bböp said:

Swamp rock, bah.

Just for the record, I definitely hope you don’t include zydeco in that. Good stuff. Back to South America - it must be tricky since there will be so much effort and it could end up being Wilco and airports without too much actual sights/experiences. I’d get to Brazil early and do Rio and Iguazu at least. I also drove to Buzios but beach resorts per se are not my thing. It was OK and quite pretty, but maybe even more developed now. At Iguazu also try to get on the Argentinian side. You can also go to Paraguay for about 20 minutes without visa etc. if you tour the huge hydro dam. I have also been to Peru about 35 years ago. Fabulous trekking and history of course (my big thing and usual motivation for travel) but again from what I see of the selfie crowds at Machu Picchu now I am glad I did it then. The good thing about the Shining Path was they kept the tourist numbers down. The internet ruined travel really. I have always wanted to roam around Chile - scenery and climate suits me, but that would need some time for idle rambling. A good place for a retirement expedition I think. Finally on a South American note, let us all remember that Che Guevara was a rugby player. What with that and Richard Burton there’s nothing more to be said really. Over and out.